[REBOL] Re: using Rebol for mail client app
From: anton:lexicon at: 20-Apr-2002 21:48
Boris,
It is still a little unclear what your application will do.
I guess it is just like any email client, able to send and
receive mail, sort them into groups, by date, importance etc?
Plus the ability to autoreply to messages that match certain
criteria specified in filters.
Plus the ability to scan messages for addresses.
Ok, I see the toughest issues to solve will be
- installation of the rebol client
- building certain gui elements such as lists and tables
that match your needs. (These are being worked on right now,
however. These existing ones might be sufficient for your needs.)
- Depending on what kind of communication needs to occur between
the server and client, you may also have some issues here, but
basic messaging is really simple with rebol.
More on Installation:
There are some browser plugins that help install it from IE and Netscape.
http://www.reboltech.com/plugins.html
Since versions of IE later than 5.5 don't support plugins, there is
no plugin for these, and it was discovered that a fair bit of work in
ASP (?) was needed to get that to happen. But it is solvable.
Rebol/View can be installed for free and is a small download
of around 500k. That's all. It also is very easy to install,
so it would be easy to write a doc explaining to the user how
to install it. You should try it to see how.
http://rebol.com/view-downloads.html (click Proceed to get to...)
http://rebol.com/view-platforms.html (<--- direct link)
Installation is still a bit of an issue with internet cafes etc.
But, I think, no matter what language/plugin you choose,
you will still have difficulties installing on such machines
without permission. So this is where the server side comes
in, with all that browser stuff, right?
This is to give the user the option of still checking the
email even if they can't or are not allowed to install any
applications/plugins, right?
I think it is possible, with some clearly written documentation,
to guide the user through all these installation issues quite
quickly, so they don't lose patience.
Security is another issue. If you want to securely
encrypt your data you will need professional (non-free)
versions of rebol. (I suppose you could implement your own
encryption scheme in rebol.)
Sifting through the emails will be really simple with rebol.
There are plenty of examples of how to parse through text and html
to extract data. (And plenty people to help you on this list with
parse questions.)
I hope this helps you make up your mind.
Feel free to ask more questions.
Anton.
